I guess I made the game ending mistake of choosing charmander at the start and heading into Brock's gym with a team of both nidorans and a charmander at level 10. I lost to the trainer's sandshrew, but I got my charmander up to level 12 from the geodude. I lost a lot of exp, but I was hoping to level up by fainting Brock's geodude. I did just that, and lost horribly when onix outsped and OHKO'd all my pokemon. When I went to rechallenge him, geodude no longer gave me any exp. Do I really have to spend the next 4 hours grinding a nidoran to level 16 on the level 5 pokemon in Viridian? Or do I have to give up and start from scratch on a new server? That's the s**t I'd expect from a FTP mobile game that's squeezing me for as much money as possible, but not even they would go this far.

When you lose to a gym leader, he will not give you money or experience when you'll battle him next time.

 

A lot of people play this game without membership, and they all succeed. You dont need money to play this game, only patience.

 

But you can also buy a membership for 100% money bonus and 50% experience bonus, but as i said, alot play without and succeed. And i dont think membership is usefull while doing the story.

 

Now the only thing you can do is the same as every new player that lose against Brock first time, lvl up to lvl 15.

 

You can also find TM Dragon Rage in viridian maze, and you can also find a polywag Route 22 during night(west of Viridian). There is also a abandoned pokemon in the maze. That can be a Growlighte, a Bellsprout or a Horsea.

 

Also Mankey at rt 22 during day i think, its fighting type, goods against rock type.

 

 

Hope ive helped you out, Have fun!!

-snip-

 

As madtrainer said there are multiple ways that you can get exp early on. You do not need membership although the 50% exp boost does help. Almost no player has membership at that stage and manage fine.

 

For players that start with either charmander or pikachu the best pokemon to use against Brock are the two nidorans, poliwag and mankey. I started with Charmander and used mankey against Brock to very good effect.

 

Yes a gym leader will only give exp the first time you battle then and will not give anymore if you have to rebattle but there are other ways to gain exp. There are quite a few trainers in viridian forest and if you haven't battled them all then go back and battle them as well as random encounters.

 

Another thing to do is the officer Jemy quests in both Viridian and Pewter, these give a decent amount of money for early game but also have the added effect of requiring you to battle to complete them. You will quickly build up your pokemons levels doing these quests especially if you focus on building the pokemon capable of beating Brock.

 

As the query has been answer I will lock this thread and I wish you good luck with leveling you pokemon and your next battle with Brock.